Chapter 3 #2
And I so wanted to trust that what Ben and I had built together was genuine despite the manipulation that had brought us together. But every time I thought about DAPI watching us, recording us, using our connection as an experimental variable, I felt violated all over again.
“I need to see the surveillance equipment,” I said then. “I need to understand what they did.”
Ben hesitated for a moment before giving a reluctant nod. “Rebecca left us her tablet. I can try to pull up the schematics.”
He retrieved the device and brought up a map of Silver Hollow overlaid with dozens of small red dots. Each one represented a surveillance unit — cameras, EMF sensors, and the insidious interference generators that had been slowly killing the phoenix.
“They’re everywhere,” I said, heart sinking as I scrolled through the data. “The forest, the town, even in the Carmichaels’ backyard right behind my house.”
“I know,” Ben said simply, although I detected a trace of bitterness underneath his calm tone. “Rosenthal wanted comprehensive coverage. She’s been tracking every electromagnetic anomaly, every time you used your abilities. We have to assume that she has months of detailed recordings.”
I zoomed in on one of the units near the portal site and pulled up its specifications. I didn’t understand everything I was seeing, but I understood enough to make my anger burn that much brighter.
“These seem like they’re something more than recording devices,” I said. “Look at the power output. They’re generating pulses at specific frequencies, aren’t they?”
Ben leaned closer, eyes narrowing slightly as he absorbed the data displayed on the screen. “Those look like frequencies that match the phoenix’s natural bioelectric signature. So they’re not just disrupting the rebirth cycle. As far as I can tell, they’re actively corrupting it.”
“Weaponized magic,” I said. Only a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have even understood what that meant.
Unfortunately, DAPI’s interference had opened my eyes to a whole lot of things I would have preferred never to have known.
“That’s what Rosenthal wants, isn’t it? She’s figured out how to turn dimensional energy into something that can be controlled and deployed. ”
I didn’t want to think about what that meant. If DAPI could weaponize phoenix fire, if they could learn to corrupt and control dimensional magic, then creatures like the phoenix would become military assets, nothing more than targets for capture and experimentation.
My grandmother had spent her entire life protecting the portal and the creatures that crossed through it. My mother had followed in her footsteps, sacrificing everything to keep Silver Hollow’s secrets safe. And now the U.S. government wanted to turn all of it into weapons.
“We have to stop her,” I said, my tone fierce.
“We will,” Ben said. “But first, we have to save the phoenix. Without it, the portal destabilizes. Your mother and grandmother could be cut off forever.”
He was right. I couldn’t let my anger at Rosenthal distract me from what mattered most. The phoenix was dying, and I was the only one who could help it.
“How do we do this?” I asked. “The cleansing process, I mean. What does Rebecca Morse think will work?”
“She thinks you need to guide the phoenix through its natural rebirth cycle and let the fire consume the corrupted parts and rebuild from clean energy.” He pulled up another graph on the tablet.
“But you’ll need to maintain the connection the entire time.
For hours, maybe. And if the corruption spreads to you during the process… .”
“I could end up corrupted, too,” I finished for him, since he didn’t seem eager to complete the sentence. “Or dead.”
He didn’t blink. “Yes.”
Once again, I glanced over at the phoenix’s oddly bundled form.
Even through the shielding that surrounded it, I could feel its desperation.
This ancient creature had been suffering for weeks because of human interference, and now it was asking me — a mortal woman who’d only discovered her abilities a few weeks ago — to save it.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said, and my voice trembled on the last syllable.
“You can.” Ben sounded very certain. “I’ve watched you face down shadow stalkers and negotiate with griffins and channel enough electromagnetic energy to overload government surveillance equipment. You’re stronger than you think.”
When he put it that way, he made me sound like Wonder Woman.
Inside, though, I felt like a quivering mound of Jell-O.
“That was different,” I protested. “I was only reacting to what was happening. I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing.
And what I need to do for the phoenix requires the kind of control I simply don’t have. ”
“Then we’ll figure it out together.” He laid down the tablet so he could press his other hand against mine, surrounding my cold fingers with warmth. “That’s what we do, Sidney. We face impossible things and find a way through them.”
I stared up at him — at the exhaustion in his face and the determination in his eyes and the way he held my hand like he could anchor me to this reality through sheer force of will.
DAPI might have engineered our meeting, but they couldn’t have predicted this.
They couldn’t have known that Ben would become the person I trusted more than anyone in the world.
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll do this together.”
The smallest lift at the corner of his mouth as he replied, “Always.”
The word hung in the air between us, so much more than those two simple syllables. Something shifted within me, some barrier I’d been maintaining crumbling under the weight of everything we’d been through together.
He must have felt it, too, because his expression softened. He let go of my hand so he could reach over and cup my face, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone.
“Sidney,” he said, his voice quiet but intense. “I need you to know something. Everything DAPI did — bringing me here, setting up the surveillance — none of that matters. Because what I feel for you is real.”
My breath caught. “Ben — ”
“I know the timing is terrible. I know we’re in the middle of a crisis, and you must be furious about the way Rosenthal manipulated us.
But I need you to hear it again.” His hazel eyes seemed to darken as he stared down at me.
“I love you. I’ve loved you since almost the moment I met you.
And whatever happens with the phoenix, whatever happens with DAPI, that’s not going to change. ”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All I could feel was the warmth of his hand on my face, the way my abilities resonated with his electromagnetic field, and the truth of his words settling into my bones.
“I love you, too,” I whispered.
A moment of silence, and then he bent down and kissed me. Nothing gentle or tentative about it, but desperate and claiming and real. I kissed him back with everything I had, pouring the past few weeks of denial and fear and longing into the connection between us.
His hand slid into my tangled hair. My fingers curled into his shirt and pulled him down toward me. And between us, our bioelectric fields began to resonate in harmony.
I felt it the moment the resonance became visible — a spark of blue-white light jumping between our skin where we touched, followed by another. Then it turned into a cascade of tiny electrical discharges that made the air around us crackle with energy.
Ben pulled back just enough to look at me, his eyes wide. “Is that…?”
“Our electromagnetic fields synchronizing,” I said, the words coming out in a breathless whisper. “I’ve never seen it happen before.”
Another spark jumped between us, and my abilities surged in response. They didn’t seem as overwhelming as they usually were, but instead were focused, almost contained, as though Ben’s presence was tuning my power to exactly the right frequency.
“This is what Rosenthal wanted to study,” Ben said. His voice was rough, although I wasn’t sure whether that was from suppressed passion or anger. “The amplification effect. The way we enhance each other.”
“Screw Rosenthal.” I pulled him back down toward me and kissed him harder, my tongue finding his. “This is ours,” I whispered fiercely. “Not hers. Not DAPI’s. Ours.”
He made a sound of agreement and deepened the kiss, one hand sliding down to my waist. More sparks danced across our skin, blue-white energy that painted shadows on the concrete walls.
I could feel our bioelectric fields merging, creating something stronger and more stable than either of us could generate alone.
Ben’s hand slipped under the hem of my shirt, his touch sending cascades of electricity across my skin. I gasped against his mouth, and he froze.
“Is this okay?” he asked. “We don’t have to — ”
“I want to,” I said. “I need to. After everything DAPI did, all the ways they violated my privacy and my choices, I need this to be mine. I need to choose something for myself.”
Understanding dawned in his eyes, followed by a rush of heat that warmed his hazel eyes to almost gold. “Sidney — ”
“Please,” I whispered. “Help me reclaim this. Help me feel like I have control over something.”
He kissed me again, more slowly this time, but no less intense. His hand moved higher under my shirt, fingertips tracing patterns across my ribs that made electricity dance in their wake. I arched into his touch, and more sparks jumped between us.
We should have been worried about the phoenix and the impossible task ahead of us. But right then, in that moment, all I cared about was Ben’s hands on my skin and the way our electromagnetic fields sang together and the proof that, despite everything DAPI had done, this connection was ours.